Jessica

I hated this book more than any other book I've read to date.

I'm still intrigued by the overall story, but Tris's character really wears on me throughout most of this book. Perhaps I expect too much from my teen heroines, because she probably does act much like any 16-year-old girl would in the same situation. Still, her trust issues really start to grate. I hope she will get over these early in the next book.

Rowell's writing itself is as fun as ever (some great one-liners!), but the story and characters fell flat for me. First, I did not realize it was an actual story with the characters from the fanfic in Fangirl (I know. I didn't re-read the cover copy before I just dove in, okay?!). Though I don't think it would have been a much better book even if I had realized this before reading. Not only because the story should be able to stand on it's own, but also because not much really happens for the first half of the book. I didn't feel invested in the characters, whose whole backstory happened somewhere else, and the romance didn't feel earned. It also felt uncomfortably fetishized, which is a shame, because I think we need way more LGBTQA representation in literature, especially YA.

I wanted a feel-good cheesy book for the holidays, a novel equivalent of a cheesy Lifetime movie. This was definitely cheesy, but I never cared about the characters enough to get warm fuzzies from it. Too repetitive, and far too many plot contrivances. Though I did find the village itself charming and exactly the kind of setting I'd love to live in, especially during the holidays.

I'm still mulling over what I thought about this book. I waver between it being just okay, and it being pretty good. It was a book about nothing and everything at the same time.